Friday, September 19, 2008

Friday Film Night: Another Woman

This month on the Pink Heart Society, Silhouette Desire author, Maxine Sullivan, continues the reviews of the Harlequin romance movies.

"Another Woman" is a 1994 movie based on a Superromance by Margot Dalton. The story is about Lisa Temple who wakes up in hospital and remembers nothing - her name, who she was, her wealthy husband Paul's intention to divorce her, or that she was badly beaten and left for dead in an alley. When Paul takes her home Lisa must relearn everything. Convinced Lisa is putting on an act to circumvent his plans for divorce, Paul treats her cautiously, but gradually he falls in love with her all over again. As Lisa's memory returns, she is shocked when she eventually remembers that on the night of her accident she put events in motion that could result in the death of the man she loves.

Lisa is played by Justine Bateman. I’ve liked Justine ever since she played Mallory Keaton in Family Ties. She’s always been a very good actress and in this movie she plays her vulnerability and confusion to a charm. Lisa needs to find out why she changed from a loving and happy person into “another woman” who was bitter and filled with hatred. But if she finds out the truth will it bring her memory back, and will that return her to the person everyone disliked so much? And who is that stranger stalking her?

Peter Outerbridge plays wealthy Paul Temple. He’s a good actor but to my mind he just didn’t seem right for the part. He was much too young-looking and I kept thinking he was more like Lisa’s younger brother than her husband. After an initial attempt at hostility, he came across as very loving and easygoing - just like many a guy in real life - but for a movie I wanted more. He had been terribly hurt by Lisa and, for me, I would have expected him to be much colder and more withdrawn. Actually when we eventually discover what happened to them I was surprised more hadn’t been made of his own angst.

The sexual tension between Lisa and Paul wasn’t really visible. There’s some nudity with a flashback to when they first made love on the beach, but other actors clearly play the younger Lisa and Paul and that diminishes the moment for me. The only other love scene between Lisa and Paul was in present time and was very tame and very sweet.

The scenery is lovely and the mansion they live in quite stunning, though I’d be happy with their luxurious “cabin” in the woods. Yet for all the trappings of wealth I still felt at times the characters were just playacting and pretending to live in these places and didn’t actually belong there. They just didn’t seem to fit their surroundings.

I found I was more riveted by the scenes between Lisa and Bonnie, Paul’s teenage sister who lived with them. Lisa had been terrible cruel to Bonnie and the two women had some intense scenes that brought out a lot of anger by the younger woman that was heartfelt.

But for a real tug on the heartstrings, the moment Lisa gets her memory back and the reason she’d changed so dramatically is unforgettable. This is followed by the climax of the story with a twist that took me totally by surprise. Thankfully for once the back cover blurb didn’t give it away, so I won’t give it away here either.

In spite of all those nitpicky things, I still enjoyed this movie and I give it 7 out of 10 on the Harlequin movie Richter scale.

Maxine’s latest Silhouette Desire, The CEO Takes a Wife, was a July 2008 release and is still available at eHarlequin. Details are available at her website http://www.maxinesullivan.com/